massey

I take issue with this. Winter Soldier didn't appear in 1941. Bucky did, but he didn't become Winter Soldier until over 60 years later. They've also got Thor showing up in 1950, but I believe that was just a Thor, not the one we'd recognize. And Jessica Jones is shown as appearing in 1964, which is about 40 years too early. Lots of retcon in this chart.

Some things just wouldn't be online. Nuclear launch codes aren't. No amount of super-hacking will let you access what's in my file cabinet -- it doesn't connect to the internet. I think after the first super-hacker stole himself a couple billion dollars, electronic transfers would become a lot less common.

Here's a version that's a bit easier to grasp. This one is 266 points without any skills, so he's just a smidge over costed. But he's a lot easier to follow than the other one I posted. You can fiddle around with it and find 16 points to save somewhere. Superman (Easy Version) Val Char Cost 15/55 STR 5 14/26 DEX 12 15/28 CON 10 10/18 BODY 0 13 INT 3 14 EGO 8 15/25 PRE 5 12 COM 1 10/30 PD 7 10/30 ED 7 3/6 SPD 6 6/17 REC 0 30/56 END 0 30/65 STUN 4 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 3"/11" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 68 Cost Power Superman! package, all slots Powers drop when exposed to kryptonite, in red sun system (-1/2) 27 1) +40 STR (40 Active Points) 24 2) +12 DEX (36 Active Points) 17 3) +13 CON (26 Active Points) 11 4) +8 BODY (16 Active Points) 7 5) +10 PRE (10 Active Points) 13 6) +2 SPD (20 Active Points) 8 7) +12 PD (12 Active Points) 11 8 ) +17 ED (17 Active Points) 13 9) Damage Resistance (20 PD/20 ED) (20 Active Points) 7 10) Flight 5" (10 Active Points) 40 Multipower, Superman Powers, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots Powers drop when exposed to kryptonite, in red sun system (-1/2) 4u 1) Heat Vision: Energy Blast 12d6 (60 Active Points) 4u 2) Freeze Breath: Entangle 6d6, 6 DEF (60 Active Points) 4u 3) Up up and away!: Flight 25", x8 Noncombat (60 Active Points) 4u 4) Super senses: Clairsentience (Hearing And Sight Groups), x64 Range (9,600") (60 Active Points) 4u 5) All around super: (Total: 60 Active Cost, 36 Real Cost) +20 STR (20 Active Points); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) plus Force Field (10 PD/10 ED) (20 Active Points) plus Flight 10" (20 Active Points) Powers Cost: 198 Total Character Cost: 266 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 66 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 ----- The numbers to the left of the slash represent regular old Clark Kent, with no powers. To the right of the slash are his stats unless he's been exposed to Kryptonite or red sun radiation. GM discretion as far as how long it takes for the powers to come back. Note that this is a fairly strong Clark. He's got 15 Str, 14 Dex, and 15 Con. He's not the wimp that we saw in the Christopher Reeve movies -- he pretends to be a wimp. He's actually pretty athletic for a normal human. He also has a 3 Speed and 10 base PD and ED. This means that even if Supes is exposed to Kryptonite, he's not gonna die if he gets hit. His stats are bought in a package -- there's no game effect except that it's easier to list them all together and only write out the limitation once. He'll be a reasonably effective fast brick with those stats. He's got lots of stat bonuses, 20/20 Damage Resistance, and 5" of Flight so he can hover. But Superman also has a Multipower, giving him some extra tricks that a lot of people won't have. It has the same limitation as his normal stats, when exposed to Kryptonite or red sun energy they go away. He can select one Multipower slot each phase and use that power. That might be Heat Vision (12D6 Energy Blast), or Freeze Breath (6D6 Entangle), or a huge boost to his Flight (an additional 25" Flight (for a total of 30") with x8 noncombat speed). He's also got the Clairsentience power for both sight and hearing, representing his super senses and x-ray vision. Finally he has a Multipower slot that just makes him tougher. The final slot has 3 separate powers all purchased together -- +20 Str, +10/10 Force Field, and +10" of Flight. That would mean when Supes is using that slot, he's got a 75 Strength total, 40/40 Defense (but he has to pay Endurance for that Force Field -- which because it's Superman it doesn't actually look like a normal Force Field -- somehow he just looks more invincible), and 15" of Flight. Remember that he can't use the "Up up and away!" slot at the same time as this one. This should give you a Superman who is really effective compared to the standard 250 point Champions villains that appeared in 4th edition. If you or I were to see this guy in real life, we wouldn't be able to distinguish him from the real thing. He's got all the standard Superman abilities at a pretty high level.

Senses work like this. Everybody gets a basic Perception roll. 3D6, roll under a target number. That number is 9 + your Int / 5. So a normal person (Int 10) has a Perception roll of 9 + (10/5 = 2). So an 11- chance to notice something is amiss. The Superman you posted has a 20 Int, so he'll have a 13- Perception roll. Better, but not superhuman. For range, anything up to 4 hexes away incurs no penalty. From 5-8 hexes, it's a -2 to your Perception roll, and that counts as an OCV penalty as well to shoot somebody. Every bracket after that is twice the range for another -2. So from 0-4 hexes, no penalty. For 5-8, a -2 penalty. 9 hexes to 16 hexes, -4 penalty. 17 to 32 hexes, a -6 penalty, and so on. Senses are divided into different "Sense Groups". Sight and Hearing are obviously the two big ones for humans. There are additional ones you can buy, like Radar or Spatial Awareness. Some senses are "Targeting" senses that you can use to locate an enemy in combat. Think of it this way, a targeting sense is good enough for you to shoot somebody accurately from far away. Normal people only have sight as a targeting sense.

The way the character above works is like this. The Aid power temporarily boosts stats and powers. You can normally use it on others or yourself. Superman took a limitation so that he can't use it on other people (self only). Normally Aid fades pretty quickly, and normally it's cheaper to just buy up your starting level of power to a higher level than to rely upon Aid. That's because Aid normally only works on one power at a time, and you have to keep using your actions to keep the power boosted. To get around this, Superman purchased his Aid with some Advantages on it. "Applies to all powers of a given special effect" is a +2 Advantage. It triples the cost of the power, but it applies to all superpowers of a given power description (all fire powers, all magnetism powers, etc). That's helpful when you have a lot of different powers of the same type. In 5th edition, you can take an additional +2 Advantage to apply it to all powers of all special effects. So your guy could theoretically boost everybody's powers (Captain Booster increases all the powers of everyone on his team -- Ice Lad, Fire Chick, Magic Man, and Gravity Boy), no common special effect is necessary. Now, you could probably define Superman's abilities as being "Kryptonian Powers" and just use the first +2 Advantage and be safe. Superman went ahead and paid for a +4 Advantage so he wouldn't have to argue with the GM that his heat vision and ice breath were the same special effect. But that second +2 Advantage doesn't exist in 4th edition, so prepare to argue. Superman also purchased a delayed fade rate for his Aid (otherwise it would go away at 5 points per turn, meaning he'd have to spend several actions each turn to maintain his power). This is a +1 1/4 Advantage. Superman purchased it as a Naked Advantage (which is called that in 5th edition, but is still legal in 4th), because that Advantage itself is limited. His powers fade in a red sun system (a -1/2 limitation on the advantage only), which because he's expected to have space adventures counts as a real limitation. He also purchased up the maximum amount of the Aid. Normally 1D6 of Aid would only boost his powers by the max you can roll on the dice -- 6 points. But he paid extra to increase that amount to 50 points -- thus his 70 Str. Superman also took limitations on the Aid, to decrease the amount Aided to certain abilities. While it's important for Superman to have a 70 Str, it's not important for him to wind up with a 65 Presence. His stats shouldn't be boosted equally. He took two -1/4 limitations to reduce the amount that went to certain secondary stats and powers. Those are fairly low value limitations because the Aid itself is really cheesy. Superman purchased Overall levels which cost Endurance. This represents his superspeed. By paying Endurance, he activates it and becomes much more accurate/hard to hit/good at skills when he's consciously trying. He's also got a bunch of base powers, like Damage Resistance, Life Support, and other powers that have a limitation "only when the Aid power is active". This means that Clark doesn't have any of these powers if the Aid is unavailable for some reason. Normal Clark Kent has 5 PD and ED, but it's not Resistant unless he's getting some yellow sunlight. To go from no powers to Superman, Clark needs to get into the sunlight of a yellow sun. He stands outside and uses the Aid power. At first, he's just a poor schlub with a Speed 3. But as he stands there, using his Aid power every time he has an action, he'll quickly absorb enough that his Speed starts increasing and his stats will get really high. The numbers after the slash represent his full power. Once he has boosted his abilities with the Aid, they will only fade at 5 points every 6 hours. Two more things to note: First, near the bottom of the character sheet is a section labeled "Kryptonian Powers, full charge". This is something I had to put in to make the character sheet work right in Hero Designer. It isn't really important to the character sheet in a text format or for gameplay. Second, the character has a lot more Disadvantages than he needs. That's something I was doing for the sake of completeness and my own game universe. They're totally extra and you don't need that many. Enjoy. But please don't break your GM.

This is a 5th edition build. It should be legal for 4th edition as well, but the costs will be a little different because the costs of some of the powers have changed. Primarily the Aid power went up in cost from 5 points per D6 in 4th to 10 points per D6 in 5th. But in 5th it doesn't cost End, so you'd need to add that. It also uses Megascale, which is a 5th edition Advantage. Please understand, it's likely that no one is actually going to let you play this character. It is an example of what you can do. He's pretty powerful across the board, but I went for versatility instead of raw damage. I could have reduced the number of powers he had and increased the limit on the Aid so that each existing power would be higher tier, but I didn't. Superman Val Char Cost 20/70 STR 10 14/25 DEX 12 15/40 CON 10 13/25 BODY 6 18/26 INT 8 14/22 EGO 8 15/31 PRE 5 16 COM 3 5/30 PD 1 5/30 ED 2 3/6 SPD 6 7/32 REC 0 30/130 END 0 32/82 STUN 1 6"/31" RUN 0 2"/27" SWIM 0 3"/38" LEAP -1 Characteristics Cost: 71 Cost Power 99 Solar absorption: (Total: 232 Active Cost, 99 Real Cost) Aid 1d6, Can Add Maximum Of 50 Points, Can Apply Adders (+1), All super powers simultaneously (+2), Multiple Special Effects (All special effects simultaneously; +2) (192 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2), Can only charge in direct yellow sunlight (-1/4), Only 1/2 effect to Body, Swim, Senses, Leaping, LS (-1/4), Only 2/3 effect to Dex, Spd, overall lvls, 1/3 to Ego, Pre, FTL, special defenses, 1/6 to Int (-1/4) (Real Cost: 85) plus Naked Advantage: Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per 6 Hours; +1 1/4) for up to 32 Active Points (40 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2), No delayed return rate in Red Sun system, goes at 5 pts per Turn (-1/2), Can only charge in direct yellow sunlight (-1/4), Only 1/2 effect to Body, Swim, Senses, Leaping, LS (-1/4), Only 2/3 effect to Dex, Spd, overall lvls, 1/3 to Ego, Pre, FTL, special defenses, 1/6 to Int (-1/4) (Real Cost: 14) 4 Kryptonian Powers: Elemental Control, 10-point powers, (5 Active Points); all slots Only when Aid is active (-1/4) [Notes: Full charge provides: 4D6 RKA, 40 Str TK, 16D6 Dispel, 6D6 Entangle, 30" Flight, 17" Megascale Flight, 4 Overall levels] 3 1) Heat Vision 1: Killing Attack - Ranged 1/2d6 (10 Active Points); No Knockback (-1/4), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 3 2) Superbreath 1: Telekinesis (7 STR) (11 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 3 3) Superbreath 2: Dispel 3d6, any fire power one at a time (+1/4) (11 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 3 4) Superbreath 4: Entangle 1d6, 1 DEF (10 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 4 5) Flight 1: Flight (30" total) 5" (10 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 4 6) Flight 2: Flight (17" total) 3", MegaScale (1" = 10 km; +1/2), Can Be Scaled Down 1" = 1km (+1/4) (10 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 2 7) Superspeed: +1 Overall (+4 total) (10 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Superspeed bonuses only (-1/4), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) Kryptonian Powers package, all slots Only when Aid is active (-1/4) [Notes: Full charge provides: 30/30 Damage Resistance, 13" Knockback Resistance, +8 perception, +8 vs range mods, 26 pts Life Support, 10 pts Flash Def Sight and Hearing, 10 pts Power Def] 4 1) Damage Resistance (5 PD/5 ED) (5 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 2 2) Knockback Resistance -1"; Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 2 3) +1 PER with all Sense Groups (3 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 2 4) +1 versus Range Modifier for Hearing Group and Sight Group (3 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 1 5) Life Support (Safe in High Pressure); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 6 6) N-Ray Perception (Sight Group) (10 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 4 7) Detect Beyond visual spectrum 22-/14- (Sight Group) (5 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 4 8 ) Detect Radio / Ultrasonic Spectrum 22-/14- (Hearing Group) (5 Active Points); Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 1 9) Sight Group Flash Defense (2 points) (2 Active Points); 1/2 Effect vs magic, red sun, kryptonite (-1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 1 10) Hearing Group Flash Defense (2 points) (2 Active Points); 1/2 Effect vs magic, red sun, kryptonite (-1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) 1 11) Power Defense (2 points) (2 Active Points); 1/2 Effect vs magic, red sun, kryptonite (-1/2), Only when Aid is active (-1/4) Kryptonian Powers (full charge) 0 1) +50 STR (Calculated Aid Effects); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 0 2) +11 DEX (Calculated Aid Effects); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 0 3) +25 CON (Calculated Aid Effects); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 0 4) +12 BODY (Calculated Aid Effects); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 0 5) +8 INT (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 6) +8 EGO (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 7) +16 PRE (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 ? +25 PD (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 9) +25 ED (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 10) +3 SPD (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 11) +25 REC (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 12) +100 END (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 13) +50 STUN (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 14) Running +25" (6"/31" total), Calculated Aid Effects 0 15) Swimming +25" (2"/27" total) (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 16) Leaping +25" (3"/38" forward, 1 1/2"/19" upward) (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 17) Damage Resistance (25 PD/25 ED) (Calculated Aid Effects) 0 18) +8 PER with all Sense Groups and Calculated Aid Effects Powers Cost: 153 Cost Skill 3 Deduction 13- (14-) 3 Disguise 13- (14-) 3 Navigation 13- (14-) 3 Paramedics 13- (14-) 3 Persuasion 12- (15-) 0 Language: Kryptonese (fluent conversation) (2 Active Points) [Notes: Kryptonese is a background skill for Superman.] 3 AK: Earth 13- (14-) 3 PS: Reporter 13- (14-) 4 SS: General science knowledge 14- (15-) Skills Cost: 25 Cost Perk 1 Fringe Benefit: Press Pass Perks Cost: 1 Total Character Cost: 250 Pts. Disadvantage 20 Accidental Change: Other types of Kryptonite Always (Uncommon) 20 Dependent NPC: Lois Lane 11- (Normal; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID) 20 Hunted: Lex Luthor 11- (Less Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Harshly Punish) 15 Physical Limitation: Stunned by exposure to Green Kryptonite (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) 15 Psychological Limitation: Code against killing (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Protective of innocents (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Stands up for little guy (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Follows the law (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Stands for truth and justice (Common, Strong) 15 Reputation: Big Blue Boy Scout, 14- 15 Secret Identity: Clark Kent (Frequently, Major) 30 Susceptibility: Kryptonite 3d6 damage per Phase (Common) 10 Vulnerability: 1 1/2 x STUN Magic (Common) 10 Vulnerability: 1 1/2 x Effect Magic (Common) 10 Vulnerability: 1 1/2 x STUN Kryptonite attacks (Common) 10 Vulnerability: 1 1/2 x Effect Kryptonite (Common) Disadvantage Points: 250 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

You summoned me? How much min-maxing do you want? Like kinda being efficient with your points min-maxing, or your character sheet calling a rape crisis center min-maxing?

Saw it again tonight. Took the wife, as well as my niece and nephew. They all loved it. My wife isn't big into superhero movies, but she loved the 90s nostalgia. And the flerkin. She totally predicted the cat scratch eye loss. Second time viewing, I think I liked it more. It solved a problem I had the first time. Once the Skrulls get to Earth, they think they've got all they need from her. Thus it's okay for them to shoot at her.

Yeah, I think once upon a time, somebody posted their Avengers/JLA characters on here and that sort of influenced how villains were built since then. We're talking characters that hit for 20+ dice and could take Viperia apart one on one. I remember seeing that way way back. And then suddenly the master villains get tougher.

But the CU isn't really intended to function that way. I agree that it doesn't make sense -- the master villains are way too powerful for any of the published heroes. As some guys in our group say, Dr Destroyer doesn't need an evil plan to take over the world. His plan is that today is Tuesday, and he's going to walk outside and start shooting people. When the heroes show up, he'll shoot them too. And eventually there won't be any more heroes. That's not really a problem with the game if Dr Destroyer is the end boss who never shows up until the last few sessions of the campaign. It's okay if he's just waiting in his castle until a group of plucky heroes dare to challenge him. It's a major problem if you think about him sitting there bored, wondering what he's going to do that day. "Should I build a death laser? A devolvo ray to turn everyone into monkeys? Nah, I'll just go down the street to the deli and start blasting."

Yup. To be honest, I kinda thought I'd solved the mystery. I was like "oh yeah, I think I see where he's going with this. It was her!" Which goes to show how tough it can be to solve mysteries in games. Who knows what the player is going to focus in on, or if they'll focus on anything at all. I once played in a game where these two illusionist villains had seized a museum. One of them had created this big dome of swirling colors over the building (it was a huge Darkness vs sight group). The other was blasting sound inside. They were immune, but nobody else could see or hear anything. So I fly up, and up, and up. Until I'm outside the dome. I can't see or hear anything inside anyway. Eventually I see some hostages being released, walking out of the color dome with their hands up. A man and a woman. I ask the GM "how old are they?" He says "early twenties". I think "hey... the villains are a man and a woman in their early twenties..." I decided this was a hint that the GM was giving us. It had to be. Did you see the look on his face when he said the word "hostages"? These have got to be the villains trying to sneak away, now that they've done whatever it is that they were doing. I'd better shoot them. Yeah, you guessed where this is going. They were just normal hostages. The GM's horrified expression told me that, when I said I was spreading my 15D6 EB to hit both of them. Oops. Part of the problem is that you end up trying to read the GM's poker face. You're looking for clues where there may not be any. You end up second guessing yourself. Did the GM say that word funny? Is that supposed to be a hint? Or maybe the GM doesn't remember that he didn't leave that clue he thought he left. Some people are visual learners, and have a hard time seeing a scene based only on the GM's description of it. Some people use the wrong word to describe a scene, or misunderstand a word and think it's something else. Think of that damn gazebo. -- As a result of this, I hate mystery games. Occasionally I'll be in the mood to play one, but not usually. I have a demanding job where I have to think a lot during the week. The last thing I want to do on the weekend is solve somebody's puzzle that they may or may not be ready for me to solve yet.

Yeah, I guess you can use the CU in more than one way. We've always mixed and matched. One guy wants to play Wolverine's long lost half brother. Not a Wolverine stand in, he wants his brother to be actual Wolverine. Another guy wants to be something he saw in an anime. A third guy is a big DC fanboy and wants to be from Gotham City. In my experience the players always change the makeup of the world based on what they want to play. I suppose you could be more strict about it though. If that's the case, a problem with how the published villains are presented will have no solution -- you aren't happy with how they are written and you want them to be different. But you also want to use it as-is. Those two desires are in conflict and there's no good resolution. My suggestion would be to assume that things are somehow in balance. It doesn't matter how, for some reason they just are. When your heroes are new, they aren't aware of enough of the secrets of the universe to ask those questions. Why doesn't XYZ villain team up with ABC and 123 to take over the world? Who knows, your characters sure don't. Thus it's not necessary to explain to them. What's important is that the characters ensure the balance in their own little corner of the world.

My introduction to RPGs was in the DC Heroes Legion of Superheroes "Pawns of Time" module. I got it for my birthday when I was like 10 or 11 from a cousin who got it at the dollar store. She didn't know what it was, just saw it had superheroes on it and it was cheap (I wasn't into superheroes at the time, and had never heard of the Legion). I didn't know what it was, and it didn't have the rules for the game. I must have read through that book 50 times trying to figure out their AP math system. Never had any clue how it was supposed to work until years later. As far as villains appearing, it's up to you how you want your world to work. In the Batman/Superman Animated Series universe, the heroes start out relatively new and when villains first appear, it's the first time anyone's ever seen them (maybe with the exception of the Joker and a couple other characters). The first appearance of the Riddler is his origin story. The first appearance of Two-Face is his origin story. That's the case with most of the characters in that show, at least for the first few seasons. As they went on to Justice League and then Justice League Unlimited, villains could show up who you'd never seen before, and it was assumed they'd had some sort of costumed adventure life beyond what was shown in the show. Where you want to put your characters within that spectrum is entirely up to you.

I just happen to have the old DC Heroes 2nd edition Batman sourcebook. This would be from about 1989, so just Post-Crisis. A lot of the character designs are still very Silver Age. Joker, R'as Al Ghul, Catwoman, Two-Face, Hugo Strange, Penguin, Scarecrow, Riddler, Black Spider (?), Bonecrusher (?), Cat Man, The Cavalier (?), Clayface 2, Clayface 3, Crazy Quilt, Deacon Blackfire, Deadshot, Fay "Ma" Gunn (?), KGBeast, Killer Moth, Mad Hatter, Man Bat, Mister Freeze, Poison Ivy, The Reaper (?), and Talia Al Ghul 26 villains total. Well, 24 villains and 2 semi-girlfriends. The 1st edition book included Killer Croc and somebody named Night Slayer, but was missing a lot of these other characters. So we'll say 26 villains and 2 girlfriends. Clearly some of these characters did not stand the test of time. Here's probably how I'd handle it. Batman's first tier opponents (Joker, R'as, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler) will each come back several times over the course of a campaign. Each would be played to give Batman a serious threat. They don't have to be able to physically match him if they've got goons and traps and schemes. But basically these guys are too resourceful to be captured by regular cops, and they'll escape some months after Batman captures them. He works to keep them in check, so their appearances will be staggered. His second tier opponents (Mister Freeze, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Man Bat, Scarecrow, Croc, maybe a Clayface (except I know the comic version is different from the animated series version)) will show up maybe twice. You get a first appearance where they catch him off guard, and then maybe they get a return visit several months later when Batman finally gets to catch them. Prison/Arkham won't be a revolving door for them, they stay put for a while until somebody breaks them out (i.e., you want them to come back). His love interests are probably never actually captured. They show up mainly as Batman's complications/disadvantages. They are roleplaying elements as opposed to actual villains. Then you've got the third tier opponents (probably everybody else). They range from a single short combat (you can't think of anything else and so you throw together a random character, give him a stupid name, and have him rob a bank) to maybe a long story arc that the player just doesn't respond to. These guys are never coming back. So a little over half the villains in the list are one-shot characters who will probably never repeat over the course of the campaign. They are nobodies who will go away forever after they are defeated. Of the remaining characters, 60% of them will maybe appear twice or so over the course of the story. Then you've got about 40% of them who will be recurring villains that are heavily identified with that character. They show up a lot. They might qualify as a Hunted. I could buy a setup like that. Over the course of what should be Batman's career, there are only a handful that he really needs to face over and over again. Expanding that to the Champions Universe, I don't see any reason why Eurostar, the Ultimates, VIPER, etc, all need to be active at once. It can be fun to play around in a static universe where COBRA always has a new plot, every week, and they never run out of money or vehicles or robot troops. Or where the Legion of Doom comes back each week to challenge the heroes. But if you want a more "realistic" setting, I don't think it's that hard to do. Just remember these guys aren't all running around at the same time.

Magneto is pretty high up there. He fights the X-Men regularly, and has also fought the Avengers, and Thor one on one. Most of the time, "fight" means he holds them off for a while (maybe until his Stun total starts getting low) and then he leaves. Or he defeats the heroes... and then he leaves. He's not homicidal, and so a Magneto victory isn't the end of the world. I think 5th edition Gravitar actually stands in for him pretty well. I could represent him in the 18-20D6 range, with maybe a bunch of extra TK only for noncombat lifting. Ultron normally has pretty reasonable power levels (for an Avengers villain), just a buttload of defense. I might give him 15-18D6 attacks, but he'd have like 90 PD and ED (all resistant of course) and 150 Stun. At least the adamantium versions would. Each version might have a different Vulnerability or Susceptibility that the players would have to figure out during the confrontation. This gives the scientist types something to do. Ultron is perfectly happy to stand there and trade blows with guys like Thor and Vision, while always taking a couple phases to blast at Hawkeye or Black Knight or some other poor low defense sap. Eventually the smart guys figure out this form's weakness, and then he gets destroyed. Mechanon isn't near tough enough to stand in for him. Doom isn't at Dr Destroyer's power level as far as raw damage goes. He's balanced to take on the Fantastic Four, and he does a good job of that. I'd put him somewhere around 4th edition Destroyer level, but with extra gadgets.

Perhaps it would help to have some guidelines for a sort of "floating" character writeup for master villains. So you could have a baseline Dr Destroyer character sheet for the published Champions Universe, and then you could have a section that talks about what stats he should have for your campaign. Something like:: Attacks -- Dr Destroyer's main energy blast should be 4D6 higher than the average attacks of the heroes in your group. If your group averages 10D6, Dr D should have a 14D6 attack. If your group averages 15D6, Dr D should have a 19D6 attack. If one of the heroes has a particularly high attack (15D6 in a 12D6 average), or a particularly low attack (8D6 in a 12D6 average) than Dr D should be at least 2D6 more powerful than the heavy hitter, and you should not include the low outlier in the campaign average. Dr Destroyer hits very hard. Defenses -- Dr Destroyer should have PD and ED equal to approximately 3x the average dice of the hero group. Dr D's Con should be high enough that he will not be Stunned by the average roll of a Pushed Haymaker attack of the average D6 of the group (12D6 pushed and haymakered is 18D6, average roll 63 minus his 35 PD/ED -- he needs at least a 28 Con). Speed -- Take the number of heroes in your group, or the highest Spd value of any character in your group, and add 1 Spd. This is Dr Destroyer's Speed value. He has to fight an entire group by himself, so he needs lots of actions. Combat Levels -- Dr Destroyer's OCV should allow him to hit the highest DCV character in your group on a 13-. This does not include bonuses for Dodging, but it does include levels that are normally assigned to DCV. His base DCV should be equal to the DCV of the highest DCV hero (not including dodging or combat levels). Endurance -- Dr D should be able to fight for at least 2 Turns before he needs to take a Recovery to restore his Endurance. Stun -- Dr D should have enough Stun to survive a full Turn assuming each hero hits 50% of the time and rolls average damage. Special Defenses -- Dr D should have an attack that allows him to affect each hero. This means he may need an Affects Desolid attack as well as a special sense for invisible characters. He should also have enough Flash Defense so that those attacks will not inconvenience him for more than a phase. He should have enough Power Defense that he will only lose single digit points from the average attack. His Mental Defense should be very high, at least 2x the D6 of the hero's mental attacks. Probably about 15 years ago there was a game book published called Omlevex. It had terrible art and was not a particularly great game system (though I think they had conversions for Champions), but it took the perspective of the writers of an old comic book talking about their fictional characters. Think Stan Lee in Mallrats. "Oh yeah, I remember when we created that guy. The point was we needed a villain to oppose the hero. And he wore those purple pants because the color got screwed up at the press. But then he became popular and we had to leave it. And so the guy had to be tough enough that he could survive the hero's big attack, so that's why we decided to make him a ghost." It might help to include some pure out of character, out of universe information on why the designers made the character that way. You wouldn't have to do it from the perspective of a fictional comic book author, but something to help GMs understand what role the author envisioned for this villain, how it is intended to be played. More info from that angle. "And so when Dr Destroyer shows up to battle the heroes in Detroit, we knew he had to be more powerful. So he got a one-time power boost there, an experimental new type of armor that was made with a rare element. We knew we couldn't let him keep it, but we needed him to be powerful for this one story. So for a couple of years he's totally unstoppable by normal teams, but then maybe he found out it was causing cancer or something so he had to quit using it. So the Doctor has returned to the level of stats listed above, but maybe the older he gets the more likely he is to say 'screw it' and put on the experimental suit to go out with a bang."

I'd disagree. I think Thanos is more powerful than any of the listed Champions villains. He'd bend Dr Destroyer over. Of course, the Champions aren't the Avengers either. Thanos is opposed by characters who are more powerful than any heroes in the CU. There's no Silver Surfer out there fighting Takofanes.

Yeah, the "I want the truth!" "You can't handle the truth!" thing is really hard to model since talking is a zero phase action.

How is that worse than actual Detroit?

Well, Thanos isn't built like any normal human, and that's presuming Wolvie got a perfect slice. By the way, I went looking to see how tall Thanos was. In the comics, apparently he's 6'7" tall, so still within normal human range (in the upper part of it though). But I found a Marvel villain height chart somebody made. Let's just say that Doctor Octopus' name needs proper spacing and capitalization.

I just find it interesting that right now, there are two movies in the theaters based on a character named Captain Marvel.

I never got the impression that Wolvie's claws were long enough to actually sever Thanos' arm. Thanos is a big dude.

Maybe the Healing Halls have a dreamlike quality to them? The injured guy is losing consciousness, and he sees the Preacher above him just as everything goes dark. He wakes up (?) in a beautiful countryside that's half rural England, and half people wearing togas and eating fruit. There's a babbling brook, and rolling hills, and you fall asleep on bales of hay. Pretty ladies tend your wounds (which are still there but don't seem to hurt nearly as much). You can't quite remember how you got there or where exactly this is (or how long you've been there), but you don't seem to care that much either. Characters have to make an Ego roll if they want to remember any details beyond the present -- it just doesn't seem that important. Maybe they take a penalty to the Ego roll equal to however much Body they are down (a guy reduced from 10 Body to -2 gets a -12 to his roll, as he heals up the penalty drops). There's a church there, and people are encouraged to pray and reflect. If you consciously search for a way out, maybe there's a door in the church that you never noticed before. It goes outside, to the real outside. Whenever you finally leave, you wake up outside that church, now old and abandoned. Your memory of where you were before is hazy and dreamlike. How did you get here? You aren't sure. Inside the church it kinda looks like your dream, but not exactly.

If it were important for the Champions universe to make sense (sort of an ecology of superheroes and villains), I think they'd have to structure their books differently. Now I'm not really sure that it is important. I've always seen the game world as more a mix-and-match setting where you take what you want and leave the rest. Just because Dr Destroyer is in the game book doesn't mean that he has to be in your game. The villains in the book don't have to be out there until you need them there. What if half the villains in the book are in prison already, or haven't had their origins yet? Heroes stick around for a while, villains show up and get defeated. This is the sort of thing the Champions genre book should address. If I were writing it, and I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, I might try something like this (5th edition costs here). --Have two versions of the example superhero group. You've got the Champions as example starting characters at 350 points. Then you've got the "real" Champions who are at 450 or 500 or something. 4th edition Champions had these, and they were far tougher. It's presumed that the higher level versions of the heroes are the ones that are really out there saving the day. --Rein in the Dr Destroyer/Takofanes types so that they can be successfully opposed by the high tier Champions (plus friends maybe). --Publish some higher point, but not necessarily higher damage class, solo heroes who are on their own. Spidey might be a 700 point character, but he still might not hit for more than 12D6. The rest of his points make him viable as a solo character. --Publish some Rogue's Galleries of villains who are designed to lose to the solo heroes. They can be tough and have cool powers, but you'll see why, on average, they lose to the solo hero. They could be threatening to a group though (but don't have to be). --Have some really high powered solo characters who are pretty much tied down by their villains. Dr Enigma the World Wizard doesn't have time to mess with you, because he's keeping Tyrannon at bay. Plus he might not hold up so well if Grond wanders into his house. --I'd have general tiers of how powerful certain things are, and I'd stick to them. A good agent may have a 5 OCV, an average super has an 8, an average martial artist hero gets a 10, and a best in the world guy has a 13. And I'd stick to it. --Most of all, I'd think about the role that these characters play within the game, and the game world. They need to live and function well within their niche, but they sort of balance each other out. So let's say you decide that Gothic City is patrolled by Night Man. He's a 632 point detective/gadgeteer/martial artist. Occasionally he joins up with a team, but most of the time he just keeps his city safe from the strange and weird villains who call it home. So Night Man is a best in the world martial artist type, so let's give him a 13 OCV. 27 Dex, with 4 levels in hand to hand, and like 8 different martial art maneuvers. We'll also give him a 7 Speed because he's on his own (might have a sidekick, might not) and so he'll have to abort to dodge a lot. But most of the time he's not fighting against characters with lots of defense, so his actual HTH damage doesn't need to be that high. Maybe he can do an 11D6 Offensive Strike, so he hits a little below the average hero. In addition, Night Man has vehicles, a base, contacts within the city, plenty of skills, etc. He's geared to fight his own villains. Now you look at publishing the Gothic City Sourcebook, which will have like 40 villains in there, most of whom hate Night Man. They are built so that it makes sense that Night Man can keep them under control. Madame Catburglar isn't much of a combatant, she's on the lower end of the scale for damage and defenses (nobody is shooting at her with 5D6 RKAs, so she doesn't need to defend against it, and she only needs to be damaging enough to fight martial artist types). But she's got great burglar skills. If it wasn't for Night Man's skill set of Criminology 17-, and Deduction 17-, she'd be really hard to catch. This gives you a great villain without making people wonder why she isn't out taking over the world. Set it up so that of the 40 villains listed in the book, maybe only 5 or 6 of them are out there active at any one time. Some are in prison, some are licking their wounds or planning their next job, some are presumed dead ("no one could survive that fall..."), and some haven't had their origins yet. Night Man himself isn't going to overwhelm any of the PCs. He's specialized. His points are spent efficiently... for his own campaign. He doesn't need more than 11D6 to be effective in Gothic City. He doesn't need more than 23 Defense -- his villains are on the lower end of the damage scale. He does need a 40 Presence though, and his 7 Speed. His 15- Contact with Commissioner Grayson is very useful. In a generic Champions game he might seem a bit unbalanced, but he's perfect for his Night Man solo game. A lot of his villains are only 350 points, but they're kind of unbalanced themselves. Alligator Man is just an okay brick, not that durable. 60 Str, 30 Con, 5 Spd, 28 PD and 20 ED. But he's got a 10 OCV and a decent stealth roll. You can see why he's dangerous for Night Man, a real threat even though he's only about half the points. Night Man will still win a close fight (especially with some attacks vs ED in his gadget belt), but it's dangerous for him. But against a superhero team? Alligator Man is dead meat. A couple of 12D6 blasts from Fire Lad and he's toast. -- If I were designing a Champions universe, I'd fill it out with characters like that. A lot of villains would have a defined role, something they were really good at. As it is, we've got a ton of villains who have a 60 point Multipower, 25-30 Def, 5-6 Spd, 8-9 OCV, and 35-45 Stun. They're basically interchangeable, they're reasonably combat effective, and they make nice little brute squads together. Villains go up in power from there, with some high earners throwing 15 or 20D6, and then there's Dr Darkseid and Professor Thanos chucking 30D6 or more. Those last guys are built to take on those handful of top tier PC teams where everybody is in the 20D6+ range, and they're pretty good at that. But if those teams don't exist in your game, you don't need those villains at all. There's a temptation to put in Superion, or Major Marvelous, somebody with 150 Str and an 11 Spd, 50 Defense with 50% Reduction, 120 Stun and 80" of Flight with a 15 OCV. But he'd just be a counter to the very very high end villains, and then you've got to explain why he doesn't just fix every problem. I think more thought needs to be put into the highest end villains, and not just about what else can be fit on their character sheet. Otherwise you've got to either include a Superman, or a Justice Society with 25 different heroes to stop those guys. The JSA might be better, because they'd only come together in full to stop the biggest threats.

There's a problem in that superhero games don't normally play like superhero comics. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, these guys are all solo heroes. Often they'll team up with their friends and have a team book, but most of these guys are powerful enough to adventure on their own. Popular characters get their own books, and they have to be powerful enough that they can win against the foes who appear in those solo books. The average Champions game, however, has several players, each with their own hero. The game universe is thus structured to play more like an X-Men or Fantastic Four comic than a Spider-Man comic. The problem is that our favorite characters are the ones who get their own books, and so that's who most of us want to play. But we've got other people at the table with us, and most of them don't want to sit and watch as Dave spends half the night taking out a member of his Rogue's Gallery while everybody else twiddles their thumbs. So the game basically balances around villains (or villain groups) who can take on an entire team. You've also got the fact that PCs gain experience, and usually become more powerful over time. So some villains are powerful enough to challenge who you will become. I'm reminded of the old RPGs I used to play on Nintendo. Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, games like that. You start out at the castle with the king telling you that you're the chosen hero who has to defeat the evil wizard guy. You get your starting equipment, step outside of town, and get attacked by an angry muskrat. After you've gained enough experience, you wander away from town and start fighting tougher enemies, like evil wolves and skeletons. Eventually you're tough enough to take on dragons and giants. Even as a kid I wondered, why doesn't the evil overlord just send his dragons at the starting castle? What are all those monsters doing before you level up? It makes for a fun game but it doesn't make for a very sensible world.